Buffalo News (New York), August 7, 2005, Sunday

Copyright 2005 The Buffalo News
Buffalo News (New York)

August 7, 2005 Sunday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. B4

HEADLINE: Worried local labor is trying to keep the peace amid split

BYLINE: By Tom Precious - NEWS ALBANY BUREAU

DATELINE: ALBANY

BODY:
It's pins and needles time for organized labor, and that can have major ramifications for a big labor town like Buffalo.
In the week since three large unions pulled out of the AFL-CIO in the biggest labor battle in three-quarters of a century, local union leaders have been scrambling to keep the sides at peace and not be dragged into a power struggle among national union bosses.
"The bottom line is it's not good. We should be sticking together and not dividing," said Daniel Boody, the president of the Western New York Area Labor Federation, an umbrella group of AFL-CIO unions from Lake Ontario to Pennsylvania.
In the course of a couple days, Boody's 98,000-member organization lost 15 percent of its membership when the Service Employees International Union, Teamsters and the Food and Commercial Workers broke away from the AFL-CIO.
For now, both sides are feeling each other out. But union leaders in New York, the nation's biggest union state, hope to avoid the kinds of ugly problems that can come from an internecine labor battle.
Even officials in the breakaway unions say they don't have the stomach for a protracted war in which union raiding of members -- banned by AFL-CIO bylaws -- becomes a weapon.
"No matter what happens on the national level, we're still going to have the relations with all the brothers and sisters in our local AFL-CIO," said Greg Gorea of Local 1 of the Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents about 10,000 Western New Yorker workers.
If things do get even nastier on the national level, New York's top AFL-CIO boss insists labor leaders here will ignore it.
"These local unions here are very powerful. The political longevity of national leaders is very dependent on the political goodwill of the New York locals. Basically, New York leaders call the shots," said Denis M. Hughes, president of the 2-million-member state AFL-CIO.
About 136,000 dues-paying members left the state AFL-CIO following the defections; its $5.5 million budget will lose 15 percent of dues.
But the New York AFL-CIO is not being hit nearly as hard as AFL-CIO affiliates in some other states, where losses of nearly half of members are being felt. In New York, the big public employee unions -- the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Civil Service Employees Association and the New York State United Teachers -- are all remaining with the AFL-CIO.
Richard Iannuzzi, president of the 550,000-member teachers union, called the matter a national union fight "over power and money as opposed to over principles and beliefs."
In New York, labor detente is being urged.
"My guess is that on Labor Day we'll see the same players marching in the same parades," Iannuzzi said.
Called traitors by national AFL-CIO leaders for risking a diminution of union influence in every sphere from the workplace to politics, the breakaways accused the AFL-CIO of spending too much time trying to influence politics and not enough on organizing.
Back home last week from the fractious AFL-CIO convention in Chicago, Boody found himself trying to assess where things are going. The split resulted in the immediate loss to the Western New York AFL-CIO group of 6,105 SEIU members, 3,379 Teamsters and 6,172 Food and Commercial Workers, Boody said. That will cost his office about $40,000 a year in lost dues.
The numbers are low, officials say, because not all local unions accurately reveal their membership numbers. On the state level, the AFL-CIO said it was losing 53,000 SEIU members; but that doesn't take into account the 250,000 members of a powerful SEIU health care workers affiliate that stopped paying AFL-CIO dues several years back.
By summer's end, at least a couple more major unions are expected to break off from the AFL-CIO.
The split is causing confusion. While AFL-CIO leaders say the Teamsters is out of their union, the Buffalo Teamsters head said he wants to stay. Ronald Lucas, who also heads an umbrella Teamsters group of five locals from Buffalo to Rochester with 15,000 members, said his union's members will keep paying dues money to the state AFL-CIO despite the break by his national union.
Lucas, whose union represents school district cafeteria and clerical workers, civilian employees at the county jail, and brewery and soft drink workers, among others, backs his national union's decision to split. But at home, he's looking for labor peace, though he's heard chatter that the AFL-CIO will kick his locals out soon.
"We've worked together enough years and created respect for each other. Why would we want to start a holy war? They are our friends," Lucas said.
For now, it's mostly an internal feud. But the ramifications are looming. The AFL-CIO has been successful over the years in Albany affecting big workplace issues with enormous financial consequences for employers and taxpayers. How a diminished AFL-CIO will fare in Albany remains to be seen, especially if the breakaway unions do things like support political candidates that the AFL-CIO opposes. It'll take more effort for the unions to speak with a single voice on major issues in Albany.
Union raiding is another concern.
"My fear is if we have any raiding. That is the real danger and if it happens then all bets are off," said Mark Jones, president of the 75,000-member AFL-CIO Council in Buffalo.
AFL-CIO bylaws forbid one union from trying to organize another union's workers. Union leaders worry that SEIU's Local 1199, the fast-growing union representing health care workers, now will be most active in targeting other unions.
Dennis Rivera, president of the Local 1199 wholeaders said abstained on the vote to break away from the AFL-CIO, declined requests for interviews. How he reacts to the split could greatly affect how acrimonious things get in a state where one in seven workers belongs to a union.
William McGuire, president of Kaleida Health, the region's biggest hospital system, said he expects Rivera, a longtime friend, to continue his quest to rapidly grow 1199's influence in the region. And he said he wouldn't be surprised if that includes union raiding.
Local 1199 officials disagree. "That's not our style," said Michelle Marto, a Local 1199 spokeswoman in Buffalo. She said the union represents about 9,000 local workers.
Rivera has had his differences before with AFL-CIO leaders in New York, and insiders wonder if the split will only exacerbate simmering disputes.
"We're friends enough to be able to talk out our differences," the AFL-CIO's Hughes said.
New York union leaders depict the split as an ego battle among national leaders. They insist the sides here are still united by common issues. "There hasn't been any acrimony between us in the state. We're all trying to figure out ways we can work together and remain friends," Hughes said.
One labor expert suggested union leaders are downplaying the potential problems in New York. Cornell University's Richard Hurd said the central labor councils -- regional umbrella groups that coordinate union efforts -- will see a sharp drop in dues money. That, in turn, could harm their ability to affect political contests or get legislation through in Albany.
Talking about cooperation is one thing. "But how will they pull that off?" Hurd wonders. He noted the current tensions come after years of increasing competition by some competing unions, especially in the health care field.
Boody, the local AFL-CIO leader, agrees that the fog created by the split is worrisome.
"When you have division, it can fester into more negative things. I don't know what that could be, but it's dangerous," he said.

e-mail: tprecious@buffnews.com